-page 16-
Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture
(ISSN 1070-8286)
Volume 1, Issue 3 (August 13, 1993)
Pages 16-24
Pirandello, Luigi (1952). "It Is So! (If You Think
So)," in Eric Bentley (Ed.), "Naked Masks: Five
Plays". New York: E.P. Dutton and Company, Inc.
Truth, the essence of a situation, the meaning of
social interactions--these are the concerns of
Pirandello's brilliant parable "It Is So! (If You
Think So)." The lesson driven home by this short
play is that Truth is elusive, slippery, and more
to the point, highly relative. Laudisi, the main
protagonist in this eloquent tale, lucidly makes
this point by having each of his friends examine
and touch him, powerfully invoking the touchstone
of empiricism. When all have observed him, Laudisi
addresses himself to one of the women:
Never mind your husband, madam! Now, you have
touched me, have you not? And you see me?
And you are absolutely sure about me, are you
not? Well now, madam, I beg of you; do not
tell your husband, nor my sister, nor my
niece, nor Signora Cini here, what you think
of me; because, if you would all tell you that you are completely
wrong. But, you see, you are really right;
because I am really what you take me to be;
though, my dear madam, that does not prevent
me from also being really what your husband,
my sister, my niece, and Signora Cini take me
to be--because they also were absolutely
right! (P.70)
For those who recoil at Laudisi's suggestion,
prepare to be mocked. Indeed, prepare to join
forces with those pursuers of Truth derided by
Laudisi throughout the story.
-page 17-
Pirandello's allegory is based in a small Italian
town during "our own times," and chronicles the
community's reaction to the seemingly bizarre and
inexplicable relations between a low level
government functionary named Ponza and the two
women in his life--his mother-in-law, Signora
Frola, and his wife, Signora Ponza. The central
question around which the narrative turns is why
does Ponza prevent and even prohibit his mother-in-
law from seeing his wife? As the story unfolds,
the community is led by the "facts" to believe that
either Ponza or Signora Frola is mad. Yet who is
mad and who is sane? This question propels the
community in search of the Truth. Their belief,
certainly reasonable by conventional standards, is
that by asking the proper questions and eliciting
the necessary information, an unassailable answer
to this conundrum can be obtained. Their dogmatic
belief in the existence of absolute Truth,
undaunted by Laudisi's persistent incredulity,
provides him with endless comic relief as every new
"fact" uncovered by the curious community is
congruent with the conclusion that both are crazy.
This inability to locate the Truth drives the
frenzied citizenry toward a well scripted public
confrontation which, in the end, only serves to
heighten Laudisi's sense of ebullient glee.
The play, aside from its entertaining qualities,
raises important and fundamental questions with
which the serious social observer must tangle--the
most salient being the interplay between absolutism
and relativism. Absolutists assert that there is
an unqualified Truth which offers meaningful moral
guidance. On the other hand, relativists, fueled
by the studies of anthropologists among others,
contend, like Laudisi, that the Truth is ticklish
and is dependent upon one's social milieu or
perspective. The legitimacy of each position has
waxed and waned over the years; however, to the
contemporary observer, relativism seems to have
gained the upper hand.
Consider the penetration of the "politically
correct" movement into American social institutions
such as that monolithic structure known as
academia. Increasingly, we are led to believe that
no collectivity is inherently better or worse than
any other; they are only different. Hence, groups
-page 18-
formally denigrated by the larger society now
clamor for the same moral recognition that their
detractors have previously enjoyed. Putting the
legitimacy of these claims for equality aside, a
certain irony arises in this tidal wave of
relativism in that it washes away free expression
as people are forced to toe absolutist standards.
That is to say, individuals must adhere to strict
and often extreme guidelines pertaining to
nomenclature as well as research agendas (e.g., the
handicapped become "differentially abled"; genetic
lines of inquiry into the problem of crime become
taboo) at the peril of public and, indeed, moral
censure. In short, political correctness tramples
what it professes to accomplish--the opening of
society to all. This leads to several important
questions: Does relativism offer a meaningful
alternative to absolutism? Do absolutism and
relativism actually anchor the distinct ends of a
linear continuum or does relativism become
indistinguishable from absolutism when pushed to
its logical extreme?
Another critical issue raised by the play is the
role of observation in the social sciences.
Pirandello suggests that all observation is flawed
in the scientific sense since it is necessarily
subjective. In Pirandello's world, reasonable
actors can observe the same social scene yet arrive
at entirely different, even contradictory,
conclusions. This is anathema to the serious
social scientist who typically aims to distinguish
between "mere appearance" and "objective reality."
This raises several questions that are relevant to
courses in philosophy, theory construction, and
research methodology, among others. How
epistemologically reliable and valid are we when
observational methods of inquiry are used as
opposed to introspective ones? If observational
methods are inherently suspect, then where may the
curious student of society turn for valid
comprehension? Is objectivity attainable in the
social sciences or is it an idealized constraint
empowered by the force of tradition? If the
empirical basis of science is threatened, what does
this portend for its logical or rational
foundation?
-page 19-
One of the dominant ideas of our age is that
scientific inquiry is not only objective but also
offers a mechanism by which truth may be discerned.
Pirandello questions this idea by suggesting that
Truth (with a capital T--absolute truth) is
illusionary and that, actually, truth is infinite,
depending upon the vagaries of the individual. In
other words, truth does exist for Pirandello;
however, it resides within the individual and may
not transcend that individual. What are the
implications of this anarchist conception of truth
for a conservative enterprise such as social
science? If we are not gathering Truth, what are
we assembling through scientific endeavors?
Though often neglected as a pedagogical tool or
even as a reflection of popular culture (we are
told, in fact, that Pirandello meant his play to
comment on Italian culture's fascination with
superficiality), plays such as Pirandello's
provide a unique and even pleasurable avenue for
prompting scholarly dialogue about social
conditions. "It Is So! (If You Think So)" offers a
multitude of possibilities for exploring complex
philosophical issues such as those delineated
above. Moreover, the play may be gainfully employed
in a discussion of labeling theory in a criminology
course. Accordingly, this sardonic narrative on
the pursuit of Truth--or truth--receives four
gavels.
Gregory J. Howard, Sean Anderson,
and Martin Gottschalk
State University of New York at Albany
School of Criminal Justice
-page 20-
Reservoir Dogs
Director and Writer: Quentin Tarantino
Starring: Harvey Keitel, Steve Buscemi, Tim Roth,
Michael Madsen, Lawrence Tierney,
Chris Penn
Released: Live Home Video (1993) VHS, 100 min.
Rating: R
Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs opens with a
scene reminiscent of the movie Diner. A half dozen
men in suits spew expletives in a post-breakfast
bullshit session. The oldest cast member, Teirney
(Joe), who has assembled this group of strangers to
rob a diamond importer and accordingly named them
colors to insure their anonymity, agrees to pick up
the tab, provided the rest of the guys pay the tip.
Buscemi (Mr.Pink) launches into a long speech about
why he doesn't tip, "as a matter of course." This
comical scene gives the viewer no indication of the
violence to follow. The opening titles then cross
the screen, and we are immediately thrown into
a stolen car with Keitel (Mr. White) at the wheel
and Roth (Mr.Orange), an undercover cop, in the
back seat bleeding profusely from a gun shot to the
abdomen. Using a non-linear technique common to
documentaries, Tarantino cuts to each character,
follows his history up to the present, and so doing
provides the audience with a snippet of the botched
robbery which is the dynamic that ties all the
scenes of the present together.
This is a powerful, brutal movie--as brutal to the
viewers as it is to the characters. The scenes of
the present are incredibly vicious, including a
horrible mutilation by Mr. Blonde of a police
officer/hostage in which Tarantino employs a
Hitchcockian technique of panning away from the
action to create an aura of cruelty and terror. The
violence of this scene is particularly disturbing
in that it is "insane" or "purposeless" violence.
Mr. Blonde explains to the pleading cop that he
doesn't care what he knows of the set up, he is
going to torture him for fun.
-page 21-
Against this dreadful mess of violence this film is
about relationships and allegiance. The title
Reservoir Dogs connotes wild animals with no
allegiance to anyone or anything. Like stray dogs
or alley cats, the thieves of this film 'hunt'
(rob) togetther in order to increase the 'kill'
(diamonds). In fact, Joe, the ring leader,
describes the anticipated booty from this hunt as
"tasty, very tasty." So it seems that the Dogs of
this film, though not linked personally, are linked
by their actions (profession).
Along with this air of professionalism come some
inconsistencies. The Dogs talk of 'luck' and 'bad
luck' and 'having a hunch' and not 'feeling good'
about a situation--feelings consistent with
subcultural research on the fatalistic notions of
the lower classes. Feelings that, arguably, are not
as prevalent in upper classes or lawful
professional business settings. To illustrate this
nonprofessionalism, Tarantino flashes back to a
pre-heist scene in which Joe's son, Penn (Eddie)
and Mr. Blonde wrestle, name call, and otherwise
act like playground children exhibiting the
'machismo' of a subculture.
The scenes in the present, when not full of
violence, are filmed as if they were stage dramas.
Set inside a stark, abandoned warehouse, the superb
acting and intense dialogue is not masked by
million dollar scenes and special effects. We learn
that these violent, criminal men are ordinary. The
unnerving message is that these are not criminal
stereotypes. They are simple guys who interact in
common, understandable ways. This point is made
humorously clear by references to the "sounds of
the 70's" that offer a musical backdrop to all
interactions.
But, the lesson runs deeper. Mr. Orange, the
undercover Dog, has spent many months training to
act and think like a criminal. He gives his
fellow boys in blue the robbery tip which results
in extensive gunfire. Many civilians are killed or
wounded. But without realizing it, Mr. Orange is
sucked into the lives of the Dogs to the extent
that he seems to forget who he is--and so he plays
the role too well, even shooting an innocent woman
after commandeering her car in the escape. The
-page 22-
disconcerting question is, at what point did he
become a criminal and stop being a cop? Or was
there no real change? He pays dearly for his
"crime" of duplicity by spending the entire movie
with a bullet in his stomach.
Students of violence will find this movie
irresistible. It manages to blend horrible violence
into the drama of dialogue which makes the violence
paradoxically far more fascinating yet also
revolting. Violence intrudes into everything, even
positive, friendship-like relationships. The final
scene, perhaps, is the most "touching" when the
undercover cop is "lovingly" dispatched as his head
is cradled in the dying thug's arms. And for
students of criminal justice, there is a lot here
about police intervention. The "traitor"--Mr.
Orange--seems to have upset the flow of life of
these criminals. One suspects that if left alone
to their criminal enterprises, the Dogs would use
occasional, instrumental violence. But police
intervention broke the trust among the Dogs, and it
was this as much as anything, that led to the
uncontrolled violence that consumed them all.
Thoroughly recommended for classes on violence,
policing, and theories of criminality.
Rating: 4 gavels
Graeme Newman and Adam C. Bouloukos
State University of New York at Albany
School of Criminal Justice
-page 23-
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-page 24-
EDITORIAL BOARD
Frankie Bailey, The University at Albany, New York.
Leo Barrile, Bloomsburg University
Michael Lynch, Florida State University,
Tallahassee.
Brendan Maguire, Western Illinois University.
Richard McCleary, University of California, Irvine.
Graeme Newman, The University at Albany, New York.
Ray Surette, Florida International University,
Miami.
MANAGING EDITORS
Sean Anderson and Gregory J. Howard, Editors
Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture
School of Criminal Justice
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From daemon Mon Dec 11 20:07:45 1995